U.S.S.R.). Acad. Nauk SSSR, Opredelitelipo Faune SSSR 53, 566 p. Izd. Akad. NaukSSSR, Moscow-Leningrad. (Translated by Isr.Program Sci. Transl., 1964,617 p.; avail. U.S.Dep. Commer., Natl. Tech. Inf. Serv.,Springfield, Va., as OTS63-11160.)

Durham, F E. 1979. The catch of bow­head whales (Ba/aena mysticetlls) by Eski­mos' with emphasis on the western Arctic.Nat. His!. Mus. Los Ang. Cty., Contrib. Sci.314,14 p.

Geiger, S. R., K. Rodriguez, and M. M. Murillo.1968. Euphausiacea of the Arctic Ocean andits peripheral seas. Bull. South. Calif. Acad.Sci. 67:69-79.

Grainger, E. H. 1965. Zooplankton from theArctic Ocean and adjacent Canadian waters.J. Fish. Res. Board Can. 22:543-564.

Johnson, M. L., C. H. Fiscus, B. T. Ostenson,and M. L. Barbour. 1966. Marine mam­mals. InN. J. Wilimovsky and J. N. Wol fe(editors), Environment of the Cape Thompson

region, Alaska, p. 877-924. U.S. A. E c.,Oak Ridge, Tenn.

Lowry, L. F, K. 1. Frost, andJ. J. Burns. 1978.Food of ringed seals and bowhead whales nearPoint Barrow, Alaska. Can. Field-Nat. 92:67-70.

Marquette, W. M. 1979. The 1977 catch ofbowhead whales (Ba/aena mysticetlls) byAlaskan Eskimos. Rep. Int. Whaling Comm.29:28 I-289.

McCrimmon, H., and J. Bray. 1962. Obser­vations on the isopod Mesidotea entomon inthe western Canadian Arctic Ocean. J. Fish.Res. Board Can. 19:489-496.

Nemoto, T. 1966. Thysanoessa euphausiids,comparative morphology, allomorphosis andecology. Sci. Rep. Whales Res. Inst. 20:109-155.

Percy, 1. A., and T. C. Mullin. 1975. Effectsof crude oils on arctic marine invertebrates.Beaufort Sea Project Tech. Rep. II, 167 p.Dep. Environ., Victoria, B.C.

Scoresby, W., Jr. 1820. An account of theArctic regions, with a history and descriptionof the northern whale-fishery. Vol. 2. Archi­bald Constable and Co., Edinburgh, 574 p.

Sergeant, D. E., and W. Hoek. 1974. Sea­sonal distribution of bowhead and whitewhales in the eastern Beaufort Sea. In J. C.Reed and J. E. Sater (editors), The coast andshelf of the Beaufort Sea, p. 705-719. ArcticInst. North Am., Arlington, Va.

Tomilin, A. G. 1957. Zveri SSSR i prile­zhashchikh stran (Mammals of the U.S.S.R.and adjacent countries). Vol. 9. Kitoobraznye(Cetaceans). Izd. Akad. Nauk SSSR, Mos­cow, 756 p. [In Russ.] (Translated by lsI.Program Sci. Trans!., 1967,717 p.; avail. U.S.Dep. Com mer. , Natl. Tech. Inf. Serv.,Springfield, Va., as TT 65-50086.)

Walters, V. 1955. Fishes of westernArctic America and eastern Arctic Siberia,taxonomy and zoogeography. Bull. Am.Mus. Nat. Hist. 106:259-368.

Table 1.-Amino acid content of urine from a bowheadwhale.

Some Observations on UrineFrom a Bowhead Whale

also occasional oxalate crystals as wellas a few triple phosphate crystals.

On further analysis the following re­sults were obtained: Sodium ion 183meq/I, potassium ion 14.4 meq/I,chloride ion 433 meq/I, osmolality1,440 milliosmols/I, creatinine 400mg/dl, urea N 3,000 mg/dl. The aminoacid pattern obtained can be seen inTable I and is similar to that seen inadult mammals such as the dog, The

W. MEDWAY

The analysis of urine is an essentialpart of any examination of an animal todetermine its health status. This is trueespecially when (for purposes of com­parison) there is a large store of dataabout urine of the species in question.The urine of the bowhead whale,Balaena mysticetus, has apparently notbeen examined.

On 18 May 1978 a urine sample iden­tified as having originated from abowhead whale, designated by the Na­tional Marine Fisheries Service as#78B2, was presented to this labora­tory. The urine was obtained by cys­tocentesis from a male about 8.4 m inlength, taken by Eskimo hunters on 2May 1978 at Barrow, Alaska. The urinewas refrigerated until 6 May, then fro­zen. On 15 May the frozen specimenwas prepared for shipment. Unforeseen

W. Medway is Chief. Section of ClinicalLaboratory Medicine, School of VeterinaryMedicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadel­phia, PA 19104.

delays during shipment allowed theurine to thaw by the time it reached thislaboratory. Findings are presented herenot only for general information butalso as a small contribution to the dataconcerned with the biology of this en­dangered species.

Results and Discussion

On routine clinical urinalysis the fol­lowing observations were made. Theurine was dark amber, clear, and had noodor. The pH was 5.5, and the specificgravity (SG) was 1.032; there was atrace of protein; and the tests forketones, glucose, reducing substances,bile pigments, hemoglobin, andurobilinogen were negative_ Micro­scopic examination of the sediment re­vealed a few red and white cells, but nocasts; however, there were myriads ofepithelial cells (some were cornified),and there were some bladder transi­tional cells and caudate cells. Therewere many unidentified spheroid crys­tals (probably urates), and there were

Amino acid

ThreonineSerineAsparagineGlutamineProlineGlutamic acidGlycineAlanineex Aminoadipic acida Amino-n-butyric acidValineHalf cystineCystathionineMethionineIsoleucineLeucineTyrosinePhenylalanineOrnithineLysine1-MethylhistidineHistidine3-MethylhistidineArginineTrimethyllysineNN dimethylarginineN'N dimethylarginine

Nanomoles/mgcreatinine

312899326411844314.51718

1152510

Trace182910

Trace17

Trace16

TraceTrace204

3124

Sept.-Ocr. 1980 91

amino acid determinations were madein a Beckman Amino Acid Analyzer. I

While Hill, quoted by Laurie (1933),was correlating the pressure conditionsin the lungs of blue whales, Balaenop­tera musculus, with the gaseous nitro­gen content of urine, he also measuredthe specific gravity of the urine on 13occasions and the sodium chloride(NaCI) content 43 times. The SGranged from 1.029 to 1.038 with a meanof 1.034; the NaCI content ranged from13 .33 to 26.60 mg/ml with a mean of21.30 mg/ml. This is 360 meg/I for bothsodium and chloride ions. In the presentinstance an SG of 1.032 on the bowheadwhale urine and sodium ion = 183 meg/Iand chloride ion=433 meg/I were ob­tained. Furuhashi (1927) obtained amean chloride ion value of318 meq/I oneight samples: Three from fin whales,B. physalus; four from sei whales. B.

I Reference to trade names does not imply en­dorsement by the National Marine Fisheries Ser­vice, NOAA.

borealis; and one from a sperm whale,Physeter macrocephalus.

Laurie (1933) obtained chloride val­ues on urine from blue and fin whalesranging from 120 to 455 mM/1 withmany values near the upper limits.

Lovenbach, quoted by Krogh (1939),obtained chloride values ranging from75 to 820 mM/1 (mainly on Megop­tera boops)2. He stated that the usualrange is between 280 and 520 mM/I.Schmidt-Nielsen and Holmsen (1921)obtained values of 266 mM/I and362 mM/1 of sodium and chloride, re­spectively, on urine from bothcrustacean-eating whales, B. borealis,and from mainly fish-eating whales, B.physalus. They also reported on theexamination of fresh urine from one B.borealis that had a specific gravity of1.027 and a freezing point depression of-2.46°C. This represents an osmolal-

'Present scientific name is MegapleraIlovaeallgliae

ity of 1,323 mo/I. The chloride ion con­tent of this urine was 181 meq/I.

Acknowledgments

The cooperation of P. F. Jezyk, Vet­erinary Medical Genetics, University ofPennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pa., in theurine amino acid analysis is ap­preciated. The cooperation of HarryBrower, Sr., Barrow, Alaska, the per­sonnel of the National Marine FisheriesService, as well as the Naval ArcticResearch Laboratory is also appre­ciated in the collection and submis­sion of the urine sample.

Literature CitedFuruhashi, y. 1927. Uberden Gesamtbasengehalt

des Hams. [In Ger.] Jpn. J. Med. Sci., II.Biochem. 1:135-136.

Krogh, A. 1939. Osmotic regulation in aquaticanimals, p. 164-165. Cambridge Univ. Press,Engl.

Laurie, A. H. 1933. Some aspects of respirationin blue and fin whales. Discovery Rep. 7:363­406.

Schmidt-Nielsen, S., and J. Holmsen. 1921. Surla composition de I'urine de baleines. Arch.Int. Physiol. 18:128-132.

Healed Penetrating Injuryof a Bowhead Whale

THOMAS F. ALBERT, GEORGE MIGAKI,HAROLD W. CASEY, and L. MICHAEL PHILO

Thomas F. Albert is Visiting Scientist at the Ani­mal Research Facility, Naval Arctic ResearchLaboratory, Barrow, AI< 99723. He is on leavefrom the Department of Veterinary Science, Uni­versity of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742.George Migaki is Chief Pathologist, Registry ofComparative Pathology, Armed Forces Institute0f Pathology, Washington, DC 20306, andHarold W. Casey is Chairman, Department ofVeterinary Pathology, at the Armed Forces Insti­lUte of Pathology. L. Michael Philo is a ResearchVeterinarian at the Animal Research Facility,Naval Arctic Research Laboratory, Barrow, AI<99723.

The bowhead whale has been suc­cessfully hunted by the Eskimos of Arc­tic Alaska for centuries. In recent yearsincreasing concern has been expressedover the rising number of animals takenor struck and lost (Marquette, 1979).The fate of those that are struck and lostis not known; however, it is reasonableto assume that many succumb to theirwounds.

An instance of a bowhead whaleevidencing a healed penetrating injuryis described in this report. Althoughpositive proof is lacking, a reasonableexplanation is that the penetration wasdue either to a harpoon or a bomb fired

92

from a shoulder gun. The whale wastaken during the fall 1978 whaling sea­son in the Beaufort Sea off Kaktovik,Barter Island, on the northeastern coastof Arctic Alaska. The animal wasstruck on 15 September 1978 and lost inan approachi ng storm. On 21 Sep­tember, with aircraft support, the ani­mal was found floating approximately28 km to the west and 4 km from shore.The whalers then beached the animal atthat point.

The animal was a male, approxi­mately 10.6 m in length, and was desig­nated as whale #78KKI by the NationalMarine Fisheries Service. As the

butchering proceeded, large sections(approximately 0.9 m x 0.6 m x 0.2m) of skin with underlying blubberwere removed and placed upon thebeach. Duri ng collection of tissue spec­imens from the sections, what appearedto be a scar was noted extending fromthe skin and through the blubber. Thearea of suspected scar tissue was awhitish tract that extended through theblubber at an angle; it was 2.5 cm indiameter, II cm long, and firmer thanthe surrounding blubber (Fig. I). Thewhitish tract in the blubber, hypoder­mis, and dermis was continuous exter­nally with an area of white skin, slightly

Marine Fisheries Review